Chinese game developer and games operator Perfect World has recently announced the successful acquisition of Los Gatos, California based Cryptic Studios directly from it’s sole owner, Atari, S.A.. As per terms of the agreement, Perfect World will acquire 100% equity interest in Cryptic, to the tune of approximately $50 Million (35 M EU), paid in cash. Naturally, there are a number of contingencies attached to the deal, including working capital and “other” adjustments as provided in the final sale agreement.
“We are very pleased to sign the agreement to acquire Cryptic Studios,” commented Mr. Michael Chi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Perfect World in a statement. “This strategic acquisition will add attractive game titles to our portfolio, which will help us further penetrate into the U.S. and global online game markets. More importantly, Cryptic Studios’ highly reputable development team and its technology platform will further strengthen our well-established R&D capabilities. We deem this as another noteworthy achievement of our global expansion efforts.”
Agreed. This is a major buy in for Perfect World. Not only do they gain a solid foothold in the North American market, but they do so by purchasing a studio right in the heart of Games Development Central, as well as pick up a number of high profile titles including City of Heroes, City of Villains, Champions Online, and Star Trek Online, to name a few. The company is currently developing Neverwinter Nights, as well as several unannounced projects. Presumably, these “in the works” projects will remain on course, but now have a Perfect World influence as to where and how the game development should progress. The Perfect World/Atari announcement included no information about current and future staffing levels.
“With the acquisition by Perfect World, Cryptic has found a strong platform for continued expansion into free to play business model and growth in the global marketplace,” said Jim Wilson, CEO of Atari in a statement. “The divestiture of Cryptic is in line with Atari’s continued focus on key owned and third-party strategic franchises and expansion into emerging game platforms.”
Torchlight is a single-player, Diablo-esque RPG , (current devs are former Diablo, Diablo II, and Hellgate: London team members) but Runic Games has been touting the fact that they’re about two years out from a Torchlight MMO. To this end, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Perfect World, a Chinese developer and publisher of several MMO’s revealed in their Q1 2010 financial results that they’ve acquired a majority stake in Runic Games for approximately $8.4 million. Not a bad exit/payout for a firm that was born from the ashes of an 
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An interesting point to note is that Perfect World was originally developed with a subscription based budget in mind including all the features one would expect from an MMORPG: guilds, crafting, mounts, etc. Since flipping the switch on the free-to-play model, Perfect World has increased the player base to number in the millions across 10 countries. The former subscription based business model could also herald a new standard for free-to-plays as the 3D gaming engine and graphics are of a quality not normally found in a free-to-play title. In other words: Perfect World is raising the bar.
